Setting Aperture on Ixus 330

[HpIxus330]

Hi everyone,

I have been playing around with my Ixus 330 for quite a bit and have come accross some fortunate good quality images (i cant seem to control when these good images come in). I am the average casual family photographer and dont know about the science of photography.

Lately, I've been reading up on shutter speeds and exposures and apertures. With shutter speeds and exposures, I think I have manages to get the concept (only the concept). With aperture though, there doesnt seem to be a setting I can control on the Ixus 330. I've seen a friends A40 and it seems that he can follow net guides because the A40 does have settings to control F8, etc.

Wonder if anyone can help.

PS: My friend and I took a shootout on top of a 25 story building at night and he won. He had sharper pics and I dont know for the life of my why. Here are some things that were similar and different:
- ISO: A40/Ixus 330 took 50-100 pics, A40 was clearer
- Exposure: A40 2-3 secs / Ixus 330 1 sec
- Tripod: A40 used / Ixus 330 hand was propped on ledge (pretty steady IMO)
- Flash: A40/Ixus 330 both had none
- Timer: A40 10sec / Ixus 330 none
- Resolution: A40 L-SuperFine / Ixus 330 M-SuperFine

A40 pics were generally more sharp. Ixus 330 was grainy. The only difference in camera settings we could find was aperture. Reading on what aperture does/affects, it doesn't seem to apply to the quality of pics from this shootout. We were generally taking images of the streets and buildings below.

Much help appreciated from this very fresh family digital photographer :)

[JohnMN]

What was the ISO settings on your camera and on the Canon A40. If you had a higher setting than 50 to 100 then that will produce much grainer images in low light. The higher setting needs more light. Yes, the tripod certainly helps especially with longer exposures of 2 to 3 secs. This would help in letting in more light and capture more of the scene. I am surprised that the images came out sharp because focussing in low light is a big problem. Better to do it at dusk so there is still enough light available for the camera to focus on for example a building or person or whatever.

JohnMN

[HpIxus330]

Generally, the ISO settings were about 50 and 100 for most of the pics. Even with the same ISO settings, the A40 was able to produce better sharper images.

About the AF (Auto-Focus), I did suspect this at first but since half-pressing the shutter release button produced a beep, I had gathered that the Ixus was able to focus on to somthing.

I will try this at dusk in an attempt to take better images. Thanks for your suggestion.

[JohnMN]

Unless you can get the EXIF information for both cameras and see the settings and compare them, it would be difficult to find a single reason why your pictures aren't coming out as well as the A40. Have you had your Ixus long, has it given you good pictures generally up until now? There isn't really a control on the A40 to control the aperature. You seem to have a choice between a wide setting and a smaller setting. One typical set up that I seem to come across time and time again is a choice between f2.8 and f8 and that's it. When you change the zoom settings your choice of the two f stops changes to two other values.

JohnMN

[HpIxus330]

Thanks for the reply. I guess it's just that way I took the pictures. I'll have a go at setting Infinity and using a mini-tripod and hopefully get a better pics.

How I long to afford a G3.